


Examination Of Time

by Bubblemage



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Freeform, Friends to Lovers, I dont like chloe ok, Kate deserves better ok, Mentions of Death, Nathan is a dick, PWP, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, VIctoria is nathans bud and no one will tell me different, cutting tw, he cares ok, nathan can time travel i guess, nathan deserves better, probably gonna start a drabble series from this, tw, very angsty, warren is a good pal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-18 03:59:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9367055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblemage/pseuds/Bubblemage
Summary: Despite the fact she’s positive she’s just lived a week of her life and witness all the horrors of the world; Max finds herself waking up at the reset of a whole new timeline with each and every choice fresh in her mind. With the start of a new cycle, she knows how to fix a lot of the issues before they start; the question being, what sort of ending will Arcadia Bay have this time?(Mixes together the two possible game endings as well as the multiple possible choices. In this, the third week is the reset week that happens at the end of the game in which scumbag'mc'gee is arrested. But i'll pay more attention to kate and Max's relationship and build up Nathan and Max's)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this will probably run at two or three chapters. Nathan is kinda OOC at one point, but tbh i think he would act accordingly considering how he called to warn max and from some of the things he says in the unused audio.

She’s lived the same week, two times now; one with her and Chloe making it out of the town together (despite it being ravaged by the storm) and another with the Death of her once best friend. The only discrepancies she finds herself going over are the involvement of Victoria in the darkroom and Kate’s death. If she’s learned anything in the midst of this whole literal shit storm, it’s that using her powers cause far more harm than good.

                It wasn’t that hard to find Frank and convince him of the information she needed; the moment she’d uttered the name Rachel, he was literal putty in her hands. She’s never felt such pain for a person; and while at first she was convinced only Chloe could love Rachel, she’d learned (twice already might she add) that people are capable of loving just the opposite of who you would expect.  
                That, and it seemed the more she went over it (despite her better judgement, but Chloe’s reaction to anything remotely Rachel related were worrying the second time around) She was mostly being used by her friend to fill the void that was left behind by perhaps her first love.

But Max wasn’t mad about that, she wasn’t even irritated.  
  
Because she could understand and see where Chloe was coming from.

                She did, however, wish her friend would’ve been honest from the get-go and not go blaming her for the horrors that world and pushed onto her. Just because she moved out of the town, didn’t mean she was suddenly responsible for all the shit that her old best friend had to go through.  
                Saving Chloe from Nathans mental break hadn’t been that difficult; she only had to drag Alissa into the bathroom with her, and the moment Nathan flung open the bathroom door, He’d turned heel the moment he saw another person in the bathroom. Chloe was spotted easily by her stepfather and escorted off campus. (and despite all the yelling, Max couldn’t help but literally jump for joy and dealing with two birds with a single stone.)  
  
                Once she’d gotten all the documents she needed together, getting in touch with David and pushing all her information off onto him (no one would believe a teenage girl had the power to uncover such a conspiracy) she was able to slowly fill in the blanks that would inevitably lead to Jefferson’s much needed arrest.

                At the start of day two, She’d taken a mental day with Kate. Max was far more careful and attentive to her friend her third time around; watching someone swan dive off the top of a building could do that to someone.  Kate was buried under a mound of covers, and the mug of tea max had brewed for her was rapidly cooling on the table beside her bed. But max knew better then to try and attempt to pull her friend out of the bed, so she opted instead to sit beside her and continue working on her science homework.

That shitty video was still going around the internet no thanks to Victoria.  
  
“Why are people so horrible?” Kate mumbled underneath the pile of covers as she rolled over and peaked her head out. Her tired eyes finding max beside her.  Max stopped mid scribbling in her notebook to sigh and shrug.  
  
“Bored? Unhappy with their lives? Stress? No matter the reason, it doesn’t excuse what people do.” She found herself sighing as she flipped a page in her textbook and continued with the worksheet.  
  
“I promise It’ll blow over in no time, there’ll be something worse to talk about that will take everyone’s attention.”  
  
“They all think im a slut.” Kate choked out then, a sob leaving her lips as she rolled over and buried her face into the pillow.  
  
“Most of the girls who keep spreading it are probably ‘sluts’ Kate. It’s just worse cause you’ve always been a good person; bad people love seeing good people get hurt. I don’t think any less of you.” Max pushed her books and pen to the floor then and laid down on the bed near Kate.  
  
“You aren’t a slut, and you weren’t in your right mind when that happened. I promise it’ll get better soon. Besides, don’t you want to go into town for some coffee and sweets? It’ll be my treat?” She lightly shook Kate then before crawling under the covers to lay face to face with Kate.  
  
“You look tired.” Kate said then.  
  
“So do you.” Max easily replied before biting on her bottom lip to stifle a yawn.  
  
“No, like you haven’t slept. At all…Are you alright? I know we keep worrying about my problem, but yours are just as important.” Max found herself in a state of shock then. It wasn’t that she was surprised at the amount of sheer kindness it seemed this one girl was capable of (because the poor thing was going through so much shit and still managed to worry about max) but more so along the lines that she didn’t know what to say.

 

How do you tell someone that you’ve lived the same week twice and watched a friend get shot twice and your other plummet to her death? How do you explain to someone the constant fear you feel lurking just behind you. How every time you close your eyes you’re tapped down to that god forsaken chair or laid out on the floor for a pervert to drug and take pictures of.  
  
She couldn’t come out and say ‘hey, I can travel through time and this is my third week in an attempt to stop people from dying.’ But max also didn’t want to keep something from Kate that could possibly quell whatever worries were constantly running through her head.  
  
“Do you believe that some people can see things before they happen?” Kate looked at max oddly before nodding.  
  
“Like premonitions? Seeing into the future, crystal ball stuff.”  
  
“Yea…I feel like I’ve lived this whole week before. But, with some changes…” Max trailed off then and rolled to lay on her back.  
  
“Is this supposed to be a horrible week? Is that why you look like you haven’t slept?”  
  
“I mean, I lived through two horrible weeks already I guess. And this one scares me because….well I don’t want it to go the ways I’ve already seen it go. If that makes sense..” Kate hummed slightly then in understanding and moved to sit up; clearing the covers from atop their heads as she did so.  
  
“So you keep thinking about what will happen and how to change it. You’re psyching yourself out then?” Max shrugged slightly then before pursing her lips.  
  
“Kinda? I just couldn’t sleep at all last night, and whenever I close my eyes, it’s just horrible.”  
  
“Maybe you can bunk here for tonight. I think it’ll do us both some good. You should go get your stuff; and maybe we can make second period.” Kate moved from the bed then and set about placing her stuff in her book back and dressing for the day.  
  
“You sure? About both things I mean. Staying the night and going to class?”  
  
“Yea, Hiding from whats going isnt going to make it go away. Besides, ive got you.” Kate smiled over her shoulder at Max then.

“I’ll see you in Jefferson’s class okay?” The pit max’s stomach suddenly dropped into knows no bounds. She fights the urge to vomit and opts to instead smile on her way out of the room.

 

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

  
Victoria’s odd need to start random issues during class wasn’t alien to Max and it seemed Kate was doing far better by the late afternoon class.  
  
Max however, couldn’t find it in herself to answer questions or talk to Jefferson. There was this inherent need to beat him to death with one of the fancy monitors that were in the back of the class room. And max found herself struggling to keep her cool during the whole class.

Warren had grabbed take out and brought it to Kates room for the three of them to pig out on while some old indie horror film was playing on Kates computer in the background.  
  
A semblance of peace wafted into the room and with the sun quickly setting Max was shoving empty containers into plastic bags when warren announced his exit.  
  
“Night ladies! Thanks for letting me hang here and do homework by the way Kate.”  
  
“It was nice to hang out with you Warren.” She said with a laugh as she turned her attention to the computer and closed out the movie.  
  
“I’ll walk you out, I gotta throw these away anyway.” Max said as she slipped her sneakers onto her feet.  
  
The random chill in the air was a nice change of pace; but max found herself shivering in her Pj shorts and t-shirt.  
  
“Kates doing better from yesterday.” Warren said then as he walked along side Max. His was gripping his bag for dear life, and she found herself rolling her eyes at his actions as they neared the dumpster.  
  
“She is. I think she just needed some TLC. I give it another week before this whole video thing blows over. She doesn’t need this stress.” With a huff, she tossed the take out bags into the dumpster and wiped her hands off on her shorts.  
  
“True. I know I asked you yesterday about going to the movies, but you seemed like you weren’t there at the time. Was the blue haired chick a friend or something?” Warren as then as he lead the way to the boys dorm.  
  
                After David had escorted his step daughter out of the building, Max thought it would’ve been a good idea to go into the parking lot and meet her old friend. Their conversation had been brief and a mix of awkward ‘how have you been’ and ‘hows life treating you’.   
  
 Despite that, Max had promised to stop by and see Chloe tomorrow after classes; around the time she planned to call the police about some weird activity in the junk yard so they could dig up Rachael’s body. Sure, she knew that would be a shitty time for anything to happen because Chloe would most likely take her to said spot so she could get high; but at least she’d find some sort of closure.  
  
One day at a time.  
  
“Blue hair-Oh Chloe. We grew up together, she’s an old friend. And the movies sound like an epic idea, but I may have to rain check you on that.” She said as she crossed her arms over her chest.  
  
“I get it, its no rush. I just thought you’d like to go ape.” Warren finished with a laugh and max found herself laughing alone with him.  
  
Because everything felt safe and okay. Waving her goodbyes to Warren she made her way back into the girls dormitory.  By the time she’d made it back to Kates room, she poor thing was already well asleep and have left room on the side of her bed for max to easily climb into.  
  
And she did.  
  
But max wasn’t shocked when sleep refused to come to her. It was a total of three hours of constantly tossing and turning before she found herself leaving the room in a fit of frustration. She wasn’t aware she’d forgotten her shoes back in Kates room till she found herself standing in the courtyard and looking up at the building.

Just standing here, it was if she was watching Kate jump from the roof again. Threading her hands through her hair, Max crouched down and found herself struggling to breath.  
  
What started off as her not being able to breath fast enough, turned into her not being able to breathe at all; and it wasn’t just Kate falling to her death any more. It was watching Chloe get shot in the head, it was the sound of a shutter closing and Jefferson’s voice echoing in the dark room.  
   
Max fell forward onto her hands and knees then; her fingers digging into the cold dirt before she jerked her hands away when she Rachel’s body in a plastic bag was suddenly laid before her. There was a moment when Max was sure was feeling the effects of the drug once more; but now she was sure it was her soul leaving her body.  
  
She wasn’t aware someone was near her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and a voice in her ear.  
  
“Hey-god, Fucking listen alright? You gotta breathe. In know you think you cant, but you gotta or else you’re gonna pass out and you’ll wake up with a most fucked up headache in existence ok. Are you listening to me Shitface? God, shit, Max, You gotta breathe max. Fuck, come here.” Nathan held the cigarette firmly between his lips as he pulled Max of the ground to instead lean against him.

 

The position in itself was awkward considering he was still crouching and she was practically limp in his arms. Dropping to rest on his knees, Nathan shifted to hold Max’s face between his hands.  
  
“Caulfield I swear to god if you don’t start fucking breathing I’ll punch you in your stomach and make you breath.” Max’s hands moved to grip his own then, and despite trying to relax enough breathe air properly, she continued to wheeze and choke on the tears that were piling up in the back of her throat.  
  
Cursing, Nathan Took a long drag of his cigarette before exhaling the smoke directly in her face; forcing Max inhale a bit of smoke in shock and immediately start coughing. Max his hand gripped his wrists tightly as she took a much needed gulp of air, and leaning forward, she found herself resting her forehead against his own.  
  
Nathan found himself frozen then and torn between either shoving Max away or pulling her closer.  
  
“Are you fucking high?” He found himself asking instead in a hushed voice; as if him speaking in a normal tone would ruin whatever strange moment it is they created between themselves.  
  
“N-no..Im not..” max breathed out then. Her eyes train on Nathans on own as she continued to focus on breathing.  
  
“So you just get random panic attacks then all of a sudden. That’s wonderful.” He dropped his hands from her face then, his eyes moving to his wrists where her own hands were gripping.  
  
“You gonna keep holding me, or are you gonna let me go Caulfield?” Despite Max’s grip on his wrists, Nathan moved to grab the cigarette from his and flick some of the ash onto the grass before placing it back between his lips.  
  
Max couldn’t seem to find it within herself to focus. Holding onto Nathan’s wrists seemed to ground her slightly, but in her head she could still here the faint sounds of screams and the distance sound of Jefferson’s voice.

“The storm.” Max mumbled then; low enough that she wasn’t even sure if she’d said it out loud. Nathan Stilled in her grasp however.  
  
“What do you mean the storm?” Nathan whispered back then, his eyes glued to Max’s head. Licking her lips slowly, Max shook her head slightly; her eyes blurry with tears.  
  
“I stopped it once-“ She started in a shaky manner, before taking a deep breath and letting go of Nathans wrists to bury her face in her hands.  
  
“What if I don’t stop it again. Fuck. FUCK.” Dragging her hands through her hair roughly, Max found herself gripping her head tightly. The tears were starting to stream down her face, and while she didn’t feel like her lungs were closing up on her; she felt eerily cold.  
  
There was no way she could keep dealing with this. How could she get help for something she technically didn’t even live through? How the fuck does someone deal with the knowledge she was saddled with?  
  
What if the storm still managed to happen regardless, what if no matter what she does everyone in Arcadia Bay manages to die. Did that mean she reset everything for no reason?  
  
Third time was the charm right?  
  
“What do you mean you stopped the storm? Caulf-Max.” Nathan quickly corrected himself then; he could feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat at her words. Was she even actually aware of what was going on or where she was? Was she just having an episode?  
  
Sure he understood on some level what was going on, and he was barely managing to keep her grounded. If anything, he was just doing the same stupid shit Victoria seemed to do to him that somehow managed to keep him alive.  
  
“Its not your fault you know.” She said then, Clearly.  
  
“You called to warn me about him.” She continued.  
  
“God I sound so crazy right now.” She took a shaky breath, her hands fisting into the material of her shirt.  
  
“…Who did I warn you about?” At this point his cigarette was snuffed out and his jeans were covered in ash.  
  
“Jefferson.”

 


	2. Can i trust what im given?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I remember doing it, but its like some inception type of shit ya know? Dream within some fucked up dream type shit. Like my current self”-he motions to himself then-“is aware I didn’t do it this time, but im also aware that at some point I kinda sorta did it?"

Part of her had hoped that after her horrible fit she’d be able to sleep far better.

  
But her mother used to tell her something about opening doors that were better left closed. It was one thing to think about the shitty things she technically lived through; but It was another thing to just let the thoughts have free roam in her psyche.

She wasn’t entirely sure what it was she’d said to have Nathan Prescott stare at her as if she’d just told him the secrets to the universe; but she was thankful for the silence that followed the wake of her words.

She was lying back atop the grass when she heard Nathan actually make a sound. He was fumbling for something in the pockets of his jacket before he managed to pull out a join and light it. He took a long drag of it before he released the smoke into the air.

“Fuck.” Was the only thing he’d managed to say in the ten minutes of silence that followed her sentence.

“He doesn’t know that I know.” She said slowly then; the words sounding foreign in her ears. Nathan shifted slightly to sit nearer to her and held the joint out for her to grasp.  
Taking it from his hand, she placed it between her lips and took the longest drag she could manage before she had a coughing fit and tears were forming behind her eyes.

“How do you know about the storm?” He asked then as he reached for the joint. She hadn’t really payed much attention to his face; but Max took note of how weary he looked. Sure he usually looked tired on a daily basis, but it seemed that he hadn’t slept in days.

And it got her wondering about exactly how tired she looked.

“I could ask the same thing.” She murmured back, her eyes drawn to the expansion of stars overhead. Nathan regards her with an irritated look before he places the joint between his lips and takes a long drag. He lets it hang from his mouth as he toys with the edges of his sleeves, his mind searching for a way to answer her question.

“Why the fuck do you care all of a sudden?” he finds himself spitting out, his hands gripping the edge of his sleeves as he sharply turns to look down at max. She turns her head toward him and raises a brow at his antics, but doesn’t make any other indication that she’s bothered by his sudden outburst.

“This is coming from the person who helped me through a panic attack.” She supplied then with a lick of her lips before rolling over to lie on her side and pluck the joint from between his lips to place between her own.

“Look”-she breathes out then around a mouthful of smoke-“Im real tired of having to deal with your bullshit. I get you have issues, we all do, but that’s not an excuse to treat people like shit.” Taking another drag from the joint, Max keeps it between her fingers as she exhales slowly.

“Like, this is the third week in a row I’ve had to deal with your bullshit; and while this is on a whole ‘nother level”-she punctuates then with a wave of her hand-“it’s still tiring.” Snatching the joint from between her fingers, Nathan scowls at max.

“What the fuck ever crackfield. Answer the question.” When she reaches for the joint, he pulls his arm away from her. She likes the haze that’s setting over her mind; because no matter how hard it is she’s trying to grasp onto all the reasons why she shouldn’t be doing what she’s doing, it seems she can’t catch hold of it. Not to mention that it feels like she could actually sleep without nightmares.

“Is this why you always get high?” She starts then, albeit slowly and fairly slurred.

“Cause you don’t have to deal with the voices? The second time I did everything, you seemed more tired.”

“I am tired.” He says then in a defeated manner.

“So then how do you know about the storm? Did you dream about it too?”

“Not really?” He says then in a confused manner, as if he’s searching for the right words to say. He has the joint between his lips again, but he’s toying with it more so then smoking it.

“I’ve tired, really hard not to have her die.” And Max suddenly has this overwhelming urge to cry; because she gets what he means.

“I know.” It comes out gruffly because she’s trying to sit up, but it seems like the stars are falling from the sky to sit around her and the wind is whispering to her.

“I loved her. Victoria thinks it was a stupid crush, but I really did.” He chokes out then, his free hand threading itself through his hair.

“I never meant for her to get her hurt. God I never meant it.”

“I got your message….It wasn’t your fault.” Max says slowly, and when she moves to reach for him he flinches away.

“Yea it was. I had so many tries to try and save her ya know?”-he sniffs then, and his hand moves to wipe at his nose as he takes a shaky breath-“but every time, I mean, fuck. I guess somethings are going to happen no matter what. Some people just have to die.”

It’s as if Max can taste the bitterness of his words and she can’t help the curl of her lips at the feeling. She wants to vomit; to scream and cry. Because it’s horrible how well she understands what he’s saying.

“She dies every time.” Max says then, her attention drawn to Nathan and the sudden redness that’s taken over his eyes. She’s sure he’d rather her think it’s from the weed, but she knows it’s from him crying.

“Rachel?” He asks then.

“Chloe. Every time she dies. This week she’s alive and its weird because I know she’ll die at some point, she always does. Im hoping if I keep my distance it’ll be better you know? But it’s hard.” She rubs at her arms in an attempt to warm herself.

“I remember standing right here”-he hits the ground between them with his fist to punctuate the spot, his eyes linger on it a moment longer then needed, and then his attention is drawn to the roof of the dormitory.-“I looked at Kate, and I thought she just wanted to make an impression to the public..” his voices trails off in a shaky manner then and he puts the joint up to his lips before he starts speaking again.

“I thought it was all just a farce and maybe some teenage hysteria about the video. But-but then I realized she was really going to kill herself, right here.”-he motions with a nod of his head to the building-“in the fucking dorm Kate wanted to get rid of all that shit, make it that way I couldn’t. and I waited for her to jump.”

He can’t make himself look at Max; which is all well and good because Max can’t even make herself look at him. Because on some horrible shitty level she understands exactly where he’s coming from.

“I swear”- She starts then, her voice harsh and cold.-“If Kate jumps this week, I’ll come for you.” She manages to swallow around a lump in her throat, and her chest suddenly aches.

“You make it sound like I want to push her off myself. I Tried to help her.” His voice goes from a whisper to something between a strangled shout and a scream; his hand his flying to his chest and he’s gripping his shirt as if he’s in physical pain.

“Get rid of the video, get Victoria to get rid of it. We both know Kate doesn’t deserve anything that’s happening. Not the fucking video and definitely not the fucked up pictures he took of her.” Max hisses.

“You think I didn’t try to do that the last few times I’ve been stuck in this fucking loop?” He shouts back then, his eyes widening when he takes note of just how loud he’s gotten.

“She takes it down and someone puts it back up. Part of me thinks it’s him that does it.” He continues in a low voice.

“He thinks it’s a game.” Max mutters then, her arms wrapping around herself.

“You don’t thi-“She starters before Nathan cuts her off.

“There’s no way.” He snuffs out the end of the joint and sticks it back in his pocket.

“Like I said, there’s just some shit in time we can’t change. I can’t stop Rachel from dying, and I can’t stop him from getting his hands on her. It’s like no matter what, the whole natural order takes over and she still gets into the fucking vortex party. She gets drunk, somehow her drink gets spiked. I tried to take her to the hospital the first time and he grabbed me in the parking lot, the second time I try to keep her inside the party and he still gets his hands on her.”

“Where do you reset though?”

“Reset?”

“Yea, like with the start of a new timeline. I’m usually waking up from my dream of the storm; the first time it was in the bathroom after you…well…after you shot Chloe.” She finishes with a whisper.

“……I was waking up in the dark room and he was taking pictures of Rachel. I was drugged out of my fucking mind.” He rubs his neck in a fidgety manner then.

“She’s still alive at this point, but I can’t make myself move. If I could just start before I buy those stupid drugs for him we’d be out of this shit, but I cant go any further back without getting a –“

“Nosebleed.” Max finishes for him with a shake of her head.

“Can you still...?” She makes a counter-clockwise circle with her index finger then and Nathan shakes his head.

“well shit.” Max finishes lamely. “This still doesn’t answer my question about the storm.” She continues.

“I had the nightmare the first time the night before Rachel O.D’ed. And then the morning of the vortex party. Still don’t know what it fucking means.”

“it means”-she starts with a sigh-“That the more we use our powers, the worse the storm.”

Nathan looks at Max then with a face full of confusion before understanding settles on his features.

“You’re serious. So from this point on, if the fucking storm happens it’s your fault?”

“It won’t happen, I haven’t had to use my powers at all. But you might be the missing link I need for Jefferson to go do down.”

“If you’ve lived through this shit before, why do you need me?”

“Because when you shoot Chloe, you both go to prison.” She states in a matter of fact manner.

“So you confess everything and you both go away. I mean, I gave David all the information he needs, but im sure it’ll still get drawn back to you.” She finishes with a shrug of her shoulders then.

She can feel the start of a headache at the base of her skull and suddenly she feels tired. Yawning, Max stands up and stretches her arms above her head, a shiver sliding down her spine as the blood starts to flow again through her body.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Nathan’s brushing his hands off on his jeans as he stands, his lips pressed into a thin line as he looks Max over.

“To try and sleep. Don’t get me wrong, this was enlightening and shit, But I want to try and sleep while im still high. I don’t need the nightmares.”

“Do you….do you still think about it? Clearly I mean. Like you’re still living through it.” Max licks her bottom lip, her gaze shifting to her bare feet on the grass before her attention is drawn back to Nathans face.

“All the time. He takes me too you know.” She says in a brisk manner; like she’s stating the obvious. The grass is green, the sun is bright; Mark Jefferson is fucking sick.

“It’s the same each time. He drugs me and my arms and legs are taped; he takes photos of me and says sick comments. Sometimes”-she motions to her ear then-“I can still hear the shutter of the camera and his voice in my ear. Its disgusting. Its like being violated in the worst way. I mean, I wasn’t raped, but I might as well have been. I still don’t know what else he did to me when I was dazed or what other pictures he took of me.” Rolling her neck slightly to get it to crack, Max shrugs again.

“I also keep seeing you shoot Chloe, her laying on the bathroom floor with blood pooling around her. I also see Jefferson shoot her in the head; oh and Rachel’s body in the bag. I think that’s one of the worst things I remember. I used to think watching Kate jump was bad, but I think seeing Rachel like that is the worst.”

“You talk about it like it doesn’t bug you.” His hands are shoved in his pockets, and he’s got this sad look in his eyes again.

“I know it’s supposed to. But it doesn’t. Do you ever get flashbacks of shooting her?”

“Its weird…” Nathan starts slowly then.

“I remember doing it, but its like some inception type of shit ya know? Dream within some fucked up dream type shit. Like my current self”-he motions to himself then-“is aware I didn’t do it this time, but im also aware that at some point I kinda sorta did it? I could say im sorry till im fucking blue in the face, but it doesn’t change the fact that it happened in one of these fucked up time lines we had. Just like you breaking into my fucking room, the fight in the parking lot and the fight with warren. They’ve happened, but its like a vivid dream.”

Max realizes that she doesn’t want him to apologize for anything.

Because while he did have a hand in some of this; the boy she’s talking to and looking at right now, well he doesn’t seem to be able to cause much harm. Sure, he pulled a gun on Chloe and self-medicates with skill of Jessie making meth on breaking bad (which is to say fairly badly) but that doesn’t suddenly excuse the fact that her old best friend was a shitty person who pushed him to act that way.

“I don’t blame you.” She says easily.

“I can get why you did all that, I really can. And Im not excusing the dumb or fucked up shit you did because you should know better; but I don’t blame you for this mess.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Max stifles a yawn by biting on her bottom lip.

“I don’t need your pity.” Nathan spits out then, his expression livid.

“And you aren’t getting it, so calm the fuck down. Im not backing you into a corner.” She says in a calm and even voice.

“Im just letting you know I don’t blame this whole situation on you. He took advantage of you too.” She tries to bite down on her lip again, but she’s already yawning; so she ends up making this strange face that has Nathan snorting slightly.

“You’re not all that bad Max.” Nathan says then quietly, as if he’s scared she’ll hear him.

“Neither are you.” She finds herself reaching toward him then, and her hand circles his wrist.

His breath hitches in his throat slightly, and Nathan wills his gaze to rest anywhere but on Max’s face. So it drops to her collar bone, and then to her shoulders where he can see the goose bumps starting to form from the chill in the air.

She rubs her thumb lightly at his wrist, and he’s more than positive she can feel the scars that rest there; but he finds a weird sense of peace in the knowledge that she won’t say anything.

That she doesn’t.

He feels like they’ve both run a mile and its weird having peeled back layers of yourself for another person to see. Even though that wasn’t his intention in the first place.

Sometimes he can still feel the itch at the tips of his fingers; the feeling of being able to turn everything back for another try.

And he finds himself fairly okay with knowing he can’t turn this all back.

“Are we going to wake up tomorrow and like this never happened?” She whispers to him; her head is tilted up slightly and she’s looking at him through her bangs.

“Wouldn’t that be for the best?” He says back, his head tilted back to look at the stars.

“I’m not mean enough to ignore you like that.” She says a sad smile on her face.

“This doesn’t make us best friends or anything.” He says as he lowers his head to look at her.

“Just cause we traded sob stories doesn’t make us fucking buddies.” He wants her to hate him again. He wants her to jerk her hand away from his wrist and for her to scream and shout at him.

“You won’t let yourself have anything nice will you?” she says in a defeated manner. Her face looks tired and her thumb stops the soothing rubbing motion on his wrist.

“Whatever I’m tired…If you want to be self-destructive don’t use me.” She pulls her hand away from him then and makes her way to the entrance of the dorm.

“Crackfield.” Max turns slightly to look at Nathan.

“What Prescott?”

“Let me know if you need something to help you sleep.” She shakes her head with a smile then and waves to Nathan over her shoulder before opening the door to the dorms.

The walk back to Kates dorm is a slow and quiet one. When she opens the door to the room, it smells faintly of some Christmas candle and Kate looks up at Max with bleary eyes before looking at her alarm clock.

“Its three in the morning Max…Are you okay?” her voice is heavy with sleep and despite the fact she’s half buried beneath the covers, she manages to look wide awake with worry.

Making sure to rub her feet on the carpet outside of the door to get off whatever dirt she has on her feet, Max closes the door behind her as she crawls into bed beside Kate.

“I couldn’t sleep.” She says easily then as she gets herself comfortable in the bed.

“Want me to wake you up after second period?” Kate asks as she presses herself further into the warmth of the covers, her voice muffled.

“Naw, just get me up when you wake up okay?”

“mkay…..night max.” Max rolls over to look at the ceiling then, the covers pulled up just under chin. She can feel sleep seeping into the corners of her vision and she feels completely safe and at peace for once.

“night kate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think that nathan also was a time traveler cause of the un-used audio. Thanks for baring with me with last chapters horrible editing (i wrote it at like 4 am and posted it whenever it was i finished idk) so hopefully this one is far better! im trying to set up max and nathan's relationship and i dont think he's really OOC but i can see why someone would think that.


	3. Day'n'Nite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The righteousness she feels is suddenly replaced with a horrible mind-numbing fear. Fear that he knows. That he'll surely come after her. 
> 
> That he wont be put away.

Victoria never asks for anything, she demands.

Nathan used to think it was because she was so passive when they were little and that through some misguided source she thought she had to take it upon herself to turn to into this weird alpha with an inherent need to show off. That because Nathan’s wellbeing wasn’t doing too stellar anymore it was now her turn to protect and care for him; to fight off people and have some weird underlying need to just prove her worth to the world.

But when she kicked open the door to his room at five in the morning dawning a tank top and some running shorts, well it was as if the heaven opened up and an angel descended carrying a scroll that was meant for his eyes only and the moment he opened it he was giving this divine realization.

The realization that Victoria was just a bitch.

“You look like you didn’t even sleep.” She says then as she jogs in place in his doorway. She’s waiting for him to properly invite her in, but Nathans got a joint burning and he isnt really looking forward to her harshing his mellow.

“You’re seriously going to get high right now?” She takes a step into the room when he rolls his eyes at her comment; therefore having taken notice of her. She kicks the door closed behind her, and the gentle click of it shutting reminds him just how dark his room is. What little light flitters through the blinds at his windows lets him see that she’s had a good run.

Victoria became some sort of a running nut when they hit middle school. Despite the fact shed taken tennis and ballet her whole life; it seemed that running was little more up her ally. That, and she seemed to take some sick joy out of waking Nathan up ass crack at the break of dawn. Usually it’s to get him to leave his room when he’s having bad mental days; other times it’s because she wants company during her cool down.

He pulls the covers over his head and takes a long drag from the joint; letting the smoke fill the small area he has encased beneath the covers. The whale noise’s that he has playing from his iPod echo throughout the room at such a low volume you have to focus to listen to them; he hopes that Victoria will take the hint that he only wants to mellow out before having to deal with bullshit.

“Are you seriously hot boxing right now?” He makes and irritated face and moves to lift up the covers before stopping himself. It seems she hasn’t gotten the obvious memo.

“Obviously.” He raps out then, his voice laced with exhaustion.

“Nightmares?” She tries gently as she moves to sit in the center of his room; her legs are spread out as she starts to stretch.

“Can’t have nightmares if I don’t sleep vic.” He mumbles then.

“So then what’d you do? Fap to some weird bdsm shit?” Her eyes are trained to the poster of some tied up woman he has on the wall and her voice comes out slightly breathless. Nathan lifts the covers just enough to look at her and he finds Victoria in the midst of doing a split that’s so agonizingly painful to watch that he can feel his legs just screaming.

So he unfolds his legs and wiggles his toes as he takes another drag from the joint; the covers dropping to rest at his shoulders as he leans back onto the mass of pillows

“I’d have been better off doing that”-A puff of smoke leaves his lips as he talks-“ Did you take down that vid of Kate?” His voice is gruff and straightens his posture slightly so he can pin her with a dry look.  
  
“Yep.” She accentuates the ‘p’ with a pop sound and rolls her neck. He keeps his eyes focused on her face a moment longer to see her grow uneasy before he turns his attention to the window.  
  
“No one deserves to be put on display like that.” He says then in a tired manner as thoughts of Kate jumping to her death echo through his head. Victoria opens her mouth to retort but finds herself unable to say anything for several moments; a weird sense of Déjà vu coming over her before she forces herself to speak regardless.

“You didn’t seem to give a fuck when it was going on.” She states in a matter of fact tone, her lip curling in distaste at the look he shoots her.  
  
And it’s a look of  weary disappointment; one that strangely reminds her of Kate.

“I don’t wanna have this fucking talk again.” Nathans mumbles as he kicks what little sheets are on him off as he stumbles from the bed and moves to snuff the joint out on a textbook that resting near his computer. Victoria raises an eyebrow at his comment and looks at him in a confused manner.

He feels off.  
  
Its been a few hours since he spoke to max and He’d hoped trying to blaze one would actually do him some good. But instead he’s stuck having a variation of a conversation he seems to have to rehash cause of the stupid timeline resetting. He likes to think this is how it felt to be in the matrix; but he knows this isnt that type of movie.

“So, not that you care but I saw Jefferson being talked to by a few cops on my way back from my run.” She popping her P’s again and Nathan finds himself turning to look at her in a befuddles manner.  
  
“The fuck? Why?” His voices comes out slightly shaky.  
  
“Did you actually fuck him and someone find out?” he hastily continues, hoping that Victoria would be so focused on his crude joke to take notice of his quickly deteriorating state. Victoria starts laughing and moves to stand; stretching her arms above her head.  
  
He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans and opts to lean against the desk to give an air of nonchalant-ness and not the whole “my rapist and sicko teacher is finally being put away but fuck im an accomplice to this shit” face that is starting to bloom across his features.

“To be honest.-“She starts in a thoughtful manner-“he has this weird vibe about him so it’s a good thing nothing happened. Like a really weird vibe, think rapey.”  
  
“You know why he was being taken away?”  
  
“Not sure.” She muses. “But that rent-a-cop was there and so was principle wells so it’s gotta be terrible.”

Its like a damn is being broken and Nathan can feel himself breaking out in a cold swear. Because its only a matter of time before they decide to come after him and start asking him questions.

“Shouldn’t you shower so you don’t head to class all sweaty?” His voice is eerily calm despite the fact he feels like he should be screaming at the top of his lungs. Victoria looks him over with a measured expression before making her way to the door.  
  
“If I don’t catch you eating by lunch, I’ll kick your ass.”

 

* * *

 

 

Max’s attention is half on Warren and half on trying to walk in a properly straight line. She’s beyond tired and despite Kate telling her to sleep through first period, she’s managed to drag herself from the dorms in an attempt to go about her day.  
  
“-nd we’re in the diner right? And there’s a horrible storm or something going on.” She’s only just tuned back in to hear the end of Warren re-telling his dream; but she can’t seem to make herself focus on it. Kates walking to her right, her attention on Warren’s words and her gaze trained on the space before them.  
  
“Maybe you should keep a dream journal?” She says then in a thoughtful manner, leaning forward slightly to look around Max at Warren.  
  
“I mean this is the what, second time you’ve had this dream?” Warren nods enthusiastically at Kate and opens his mouth to retort.  
  
“Exactly I mean- what’s going on?” He suddenly digresses and stops his steps to motion toward the road at the front of the school. There’s a steadily growing crowd of people and Kate pulls her phone to look at the time with a confused face.  
  
“It’s only seven, class doesn’t start for another hour.”  
  
“Maybe its pancake day? Could explain all the early risers.” He supplies with a shrug before his attention is taken by Jefferson emerging from the school building followed by two cops.

Kates expression Pales slightly when he walks past them, this overwhelming sense of disgust and fear coursing through her. Her mind is filled with hazy memories of being in a hospital room and she finds herself physically having to shake her head to get the images out of her mind.

Max is turning to say something in regards to the scene, but grips Kates hand in a comforting manner. She can’t help the sense of righteousness that surges through her at Jefferson being taken toward the cop car. And then Jefferson’s looking over his shoulder as he’s being handcuffed and his eyes land on Max.  
  
The righteousness is suddenly replaced with a horrible mind-numbing fear. Fear that he knows. That he'll surely come after her. That he won’t be put away.

Max wants to vomit.

“Wowser.” Warren says then.  
  
“Think its drugs or something?” And the comment Warren Makes hits so close to home that Max can feel the bile crawling up the back of her throat. His attention is trained on the police when he takes not of Jefferson looking back at their small group.  
  
Max’s face seems suddenly gaunt and she seems torn between throwing up and sobbing. Warren looks from Max to Jefferson and this urge to just make max feels safe surges through him the moment he realizes that Jefferson is starting at Max. While at first he thinks the stare isn’t intentional; that maybe he’s just searching the crowd to see who was there to witness it. But this reasoning is quickly pushed aside because there’s no reason for him to keep eye contact that long.

Max excuses herself with a mumble of not feeling well and makes her way back to the dorms. He turns to say something to her when Kate grabs his arm and shakes her head.  Her other hand is gripping the cross that dangles from her neck as she murmurs scripture; her eyes focused on Jefferson.  
  
Warren swallows audibly, his gaze jumping from cop to student.

“Think he did something terrible?” He asks then as he turns to look at Kate.  
  
“I know he did.” She replies, her eyes hard before she turns to him with an air of kindness. And it’s as if whatever dark cloud was just hanging over them is gone.

“Lets go see if there really is pancakes for breakfast.” She’s already making her way to the front of the school before he has a chance to answer.

“Duh. Think we should sneak something back for max?”

“If they have those chocolate protein bar things I think she’ll be in a better mood.” Warrens walking beside her when he looks over his shoulder at the dorms.

“That was weird back there. Max’s reaction to Jefferson and all..” He starts slowly, and kate stops mid-step to look over her shoulder at him.

“She’ll tell us when she’s ready. Come on, I don’t like looking at the dorms.” She feels a shiver go down her spine then and continues to make her way to the front doors, a laugh leaving her lips when Warren jogs to catch up to her.

“Dorms haunted or something? Something strange in the neighborhood?” He’s laughing and too involved with humming the ghost busters theme to take notice of the pensive look that overtakes Kate. She tries to shake the hazy image of looking off the roof and max reaching for her.

“Just this weird sense of déjà vu…”

“Seems to be going on a lot lately.”

“You’re having them too?” She’s reaching to open the doors to the main building when Warren stops beside her, his attention on the parking lot.

“Yea, my head started to hurt yesterday; like id been punched in the eye or something. I had to take an Advil it was so bad. I was going to get something from my car when it happened.” Warren shrugs then as if its not that big of a deal and steps through the door that Kates holding open.

“Not to mention that dream about the storm that was sharkando levels of weird.”  
  
“Uh-huh..”  
  
“You don’t know what that is do you?”

“I feel like I don’t want to know Warren.”

 

* * *

 

Nathans peaking between the blinds in his room and looking at the empty parking lot with a pit in his stomach.

So when the door to his room is flung open, he’s expecting police yelling at him and for his hands to be pinned to his back; not for max to be slamming the door shut behind her looking like she’d seen a ghost.

Her hair is sticking up in every which way and her chest is heaving like she’d just run a marathon. But what completely unsettles him is the words she says in a whisper like voice.

“He knows.”

And suddenly its like someone’s dumped a bucket of freezing water on him and Nathan is scrambling to take a deep breath of air in an attempt to quell the scream that he can feel bubbling in his throat.  
  
“What the fuck crackfield!?” He shouts as he strides toward her, his hands gripping her shoulders as he shakes her.

“Who knows? What did you do? What the fuck did you do?” He’s panicking and all that’s doing is making Max freak out even more. Her face is pale and she has a serious case of cotton mouth. Not to mention the fact she’s positive Jefferson knows it was her.

“If you can remember what happened in all the time lines, what’s stopping him?” She asks suddenly, and then it all starts to make sense to him. Slowly he takes a breath and his hands moves to cup Max’s face.

“I could actually time travel.” He says slowly, his eyes focused on her own as he speaks.

“You can time travel. It wouldn’t make sense if we couldn’t remember the choices we made.” He continues in a measured tone.

“Because what would be the point in it all if we were making the same shitty choices. There’s no way he knows, he’s been the same every timeline you’ve gone through so far, right?” But somewhere in the back of his head, there’s a voice that’s whispering out ‘liar’; like his mind is skipping over something its trying so hard to grasp onto.

He doesn’t even believe the words he’s spitting out.

“Did you watch them take him away?” he pulls his hands back slowly and drops his arms to hang at his sides. Color is starting to bloom across her cheeks and she drags a hand through her hair as she nods.

“Yea..” she licks her lips and purses them slightly before continuing.

“He looked back at me, straight back at me. Eye contact and all.” She motions between their eyes quickly then to further prove her point.

“Like the whole…I don’t know.. _i’m watching you_ thing.” She takes a shaky breath and Nathan moves to sit on the bed. His eyes watching her as she paces about his room.

“So he looked at you. Big fucking whoop. He does that in class too.”

“You don’t get it. He _looked_ at me Nathan. Like _really_ looked. More than five seconds.”

“So what, we talking bedroom eyes then?” He says in an exasperated manner.

“Nathan this isnt a fucking joke!” She shouts, her body ridged as she abruptly turns to face him.

“He stared at me; it wasn’t him looking through the crowd. It was him starting at me like I did something. Like this was all my fault.”

“Technically it is.” He starts before quickly continuing at the look she shoots him.

“He doesn’t know, he can’t know. Stop psyching yourself out.”

“We have like what, two more days till the timeline resets or something? If he doesn’t stay away this time we are fucked. I don’t want to do this again, I can’t fucking take it.” And it seemed that just as quickly had Max entered his room, She’d left.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this was a legit filler chapter. I thought i was gonna go great places with this, but its pretty much to set the tone for the next chapter. usually each chapter goes by days, so this chapter would be Wednesday; but the next chapter will be Wednesday as well idk. Thank you all for your nice comments and for reading! Idk if anyone else checks the LIS headcanons on tumblr but i love reading other fans thoughts and i use the ones i really resonate with; so if you have a headcanon or something shoot me a message on my tumblr 'pastelbitemarks' and i'll check it out and see about adding it.
> 
> Also, i feel like Nathan is the type of person to listen to vaporwave or chillwave shit when he gets high; like aside from whale sounds. Like old school rap type shit.
> 
> Anywho, hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'll start working on the next ASAP!


End file.
